by 
I have a secret to tell you.
I can see the future. Well, kind of. You see, I can see the future of making money. At least, I hope I can. But before we talk about the future, let’s talk a bit about the present.
What is the most successful business model to date, on the Internet? Yep, you guessed right! Advertising! The predominant model for success has always been, create a valuable piece of web real estate, built on outstanding content, that users flock to, and litter it with ads. Ads have been the leading force of monetization online. And, if you were to read Google’s quarterly statements, you might think that this trend will forever continue. But, unfortunately all good things must come to an end and even giants like Google will need to adapt.
So, that brings us to the future! If ads will one day cease to be the money leader, what will take their place? Content will. Ok, not any old content, but, premium content. I know what you thinking. Joe, you aren’t psychic your psychotic, nobody likes to pay for content, our battle cry is freemium! Ok, I can understand your hesitation. But Gary Vaynerchuk helped me see the light with the below video.
Gary tells us that mobile apps are changing the consumer consciousness to appreciate premium content models. But the one thing that Gary misses in the video above is the WHY factor. Because the real question at this point isn’t, what will people spend money on in the future, Gary already tells us it’s content. Now, we need to ask ourselves, why?
Why are people buying premium content for their mobile devices? The biggest reason is because they value the experience of consuming content in a mobile environment. The Wall Street Journal understands that there is a sizable potion of their subscribers that are willing to pay a bit extra for the ability to read their content on the iPad. I can understand that. Because, consuming high quality content in a mobile environment is an experience worth paying for.
Oh wait, what was that? Did you see the e-word creep into the last paragraph? That’s right, once again we are talking about experience marketing! Because the key to making money in the future won’t be premium content alone, but rather content that engages the user in a way that is an experience in itself. Because like all experience marketing, it isn’t the content that sells it’s the experience that the content renders, that sells.
